Japan (travel to Kyoto and first full day there)

It has not been the best couple of weeks as my house turned out to be flood-damaged (still waiting for insurance assessment), my mother is quite unwell, and for some reason all three of the work projects I am doing with various difficult personalities have had terrible meetings where my esteemed colleagues behave like belligerent toddlers, only without the hope that they will one day grow out of it. Anyway. Back to Japan (I wish).

On Friday we took the Shinkansen down to Kyoto - travelling with my parents but separately from my sister and her family, who left a bit later. We used JRail passes to book the shinkansen and specifically asked about booking seats where you can put oversize baggage behind them, having had issues in the past, and because I had chosen to travel with one very large suitcase & individual carry-ons. The staff said that this wasn’t currently necessary (cue foreshadowing).

( Mostly travelling. )

Saturday

Foolishly I had not picked up anything for breakfast the night before. We went over to the station and (with some difficulty) tracked down a French bakery I’d seen the day before, where you could buy miniature danish pastries by weight. My daughter got increasingly grumpy the longer we took, and as she was wearing snow boots her disapproval manifested via very loud stomping.

( Anyway. )

Coming up; meeting nnozomi, the manga museum, and a castle. And then another theme park.